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THE IRH1GATION AGE. 



YAKIMA COUNTY, WASHINGTON. 



By QRANV1LLE LOWTHER. 



When Nature distributed her gifts she did not put 

 all the best in one place, but she put so many of them 

 in the Yakima Valley that its fame has become wide- 

 spread. The source of this valley is in the Cascade 

 Range, where there are snow-covered mountains, beau- 

 tiful lakes, dense forests, vast deposits of coal and val- 

 uable minerals. From the lakes above the valley, comes 

 the water supply for irrigating the lands newly reclaimed 

 from sage-brush desert and turned into beautiful farms, 

 orchards and gardens. This supply furnishes sufficient 

 power to turn thousands of mills, run electric car lines 

 and light millions of homes. 



HON. GEO. E. BARSTOW. 

 President Seventeenth National Irrigation Congress. 



Irrigation makes intensive farming possible; in- 

 tensive farming produces large profits on small areas 

 of land ; large profits make great wealth and dense popu- 

 lation. That which is possible is actually coming to 

 pass, for our well-developed country districts are so 

 thickly populated they look almost like the suburban 

 portions of the city. 



The dense population results in extensive public 

 improvements. Where a family can make as much mon- 

 ey on five acres of land as the average family will make 



on 160 acres, it is possible to place thirty-two families 

 on the same area that will support one family in the 

 unirrigated regions. 



Thirty-two families on a small area like this con- 

 tribute in a larger degree to the building of all public 

 institutions and the establishment of commercial cen- 

 ters than is possible in the more sparsely settled, unirri- 

 gated districts. This produces a new type of social and 

 intellectual life; in fact, the city and country are 

 brought so close together that there are no class dis- 

 tinctions. 



Yakima climate is healthful; the air is pure and 

 invigorating. Its summers are not excessively hot, be- 

 cause every night the cool air from the ranges lowers 

 the temperature and makes sleep refreshing. Its winters 

 are not extremely cold, because the prevailing winds 

 are from the northwest and the warm air of the coast, 

 tempered by the Japan current, is conveyed across the 

 mountains, this mitigating the cold that prevails in the 

 same latitude farther inland. Its soil is a volcanic 

 ash, rich in the chemicals necessary to produce the best 

 fruits and vegetable products, which command the high- 

 est market prices, making the producers large profits. 



Yakima County, bounded on the west by the Cas- 

 cade Eange, includes Mt. Adams, rising 12,307 feet 

 above the sea and always covered with snow. In this 

 part are vast deposits of semi-anthracite coal awaiting 

 transportation by the railroads already under construc- 

 tion. 



The county extends eastward about seventy-eight 

 miles to the Columbia River and Benton County. The 

 county seat is North Yakima, a city of about 13,000 

 population. Concentering at North Yakima, like the 

 spokes of a wheel toward the hub, are fertile valleys 

 and high plateaus, the very best fruit lands of the North- 

 west. The products of these valleys and plateaus must 

 flow into North Yakima as a commercial center and the 

 vast populations they will support it will make it the 

 center of trade. There are already within a radius of 

 three miles of the town, more people than there are 

 within a similar territory in the entire country. 



The city has five banks with deposits aggregating 

 nearly $4,000,000. The general appearance of the prin- 

 cipal streets, which are paved and have miles of cement 

 walks, indicate to the visitor a city of busy, happy peo- 

 ple. There are miles of stone and brick business blocks, 

 presenting marked contrast to the sage-brush to be 

 seen here and there from the windows of the railway 

 and electric cars. Among the fine buildings recently 

 erected are a court house costing $125,000 ; a thoroughly 

 modern and up-to-date high school structure that cost 

 $100,000; a Y. M. C. A. building; a Rex Spray factory; 

 a State Fair building ; a public library and hundreds of 

 residences. No city of its size can show more progress 

 and more public-spirited citizens. A large membership 

 of all the principal denominations shows the moral tone 

 of the city to be wholesome. Two new churches are 

 just being completed at a cost of over $85,000. 



A COUNTRY FOR HOMES. 



There are times when nearly all persons long for 



